Oscars distract from practical inclusion of African communities

#OscarsSoWhite is another example of a distraction from what is truly occurring in the world around us. Look past the glamour and focus on the root of the issues. Black people are being denied basic rights, and all we are worried about is privilege of receiving an award.

Two neighborhoods of color have been suffering this past month in two different areas of the world. However, as a society, we’ve chosen to dismiss the life-threatening issues they face and focus our attention on awards shows.

#OscarsSoWhite caused a media storm when the prestigious academy announced their nominees. The lack of representation of people of color was astounding to say the least. Absolutely no one of color was nominated, including the actors from movies about people of color like Straight Outta Compton and Creed; although Sylvester Stallone was nominated for Supporting Actor.

However, at the same time the conversation around the Oscars was erupting, the people of Flint, Michigan — a predominantly black community with many under the national poverty line — are without drinking water. Their water has been polluted with high levels of lead and iron, leaving the water looking like sewage.

The fact that there is a town of people suffering from lack of drinkable water in the United States — a developed world power — is something to be ashamed of. The fact that this has been the case for two years now is heartbreaking. The institutional failure that has affected the people of Flint should be clouding the airways more so than an awards show.

What does this say about American values? We, as a society, choose to ignore the basic needs of our fellow African-American brothers and sisters and focus on whether people of color are being awarded pieces of metal for their achievements.

There has been a respectable push for more inclusion of people of color in every aspect of society including politics, education and entertainment. The spread of inclusion is necessary at every level, but we cannot fail to address the real issues that this marginalized population faces.

We should be protesting for clean water, not awards shows. The lack of inclusion also expands to a global issue. On an international level, we should be channeling our energy towards helping our African brothers and sisters in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali and other countries become developed nations.

While headlines and banners across American TV screens read #OscarsSoWhite, Boko Haram staged an attack on a northern Nigerian town. The terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to the Daesh, or Islamic State, burned a village to the ground killing roughly 80 individuals, mainly children.

Though the U.S. has made efforts to dismantle the Daesh with airstrikes, none of our efforts have been directed towards Nigeria where Boko Haram operates. The last time this terrorist organization received large amounts of media attention was when they staged a mass kidnapping at a Nigerian university for women. Since then, only foreign news agencies have kept up with the organization.

We worked to ignite a conversation about award shows to the point where The Academy creates an initiative to increase diversity, but we are willing to allow our black brothers and sisters in Flint to drink poisoned water and Nigerians to die at the hands of extremists.

As a society, if we want to address the topic of inclusion, we must first work to meet the basic needs of people of color. We cannot continue to focus our energy towards the glamorized conversations that, in reality, are not really addressing the issue at hand.

Hiba Ahmad, Contributing Columnist